Bang for the Buck - Aurender or Lumin
 

I have a CH Precision C1 dac (without USB input at the moment but this could be rectified). Which brand and model would you recommend to get the best sound out into the DAC? I was almost ready to buy the Lumin U1 but then looked into Aurender and they look pretty good! Not cheap though!

Thanks

Howie

Bang for the Buck - Aurender or Lumin
 

Howie...great to see you post again. (You have been missed)

Are you planning to use Roon in the near or distant future ?
If so, know that the Aurender is not Roon ready.

Another spec to consider is wireless capability.

In my use case I required wifi and AES/EBU XLR.
That basically limited my choices to the Auralic Aries G1 and G2.
(Lumin U1 and dCS Network Bridge don’t offer wifi)

I opted for the G2 and am very impressed with its performance and value.

Welcome back Howie. I had a Aurender music server, sound quality is excellent, conductor app. is adequate but I prefer Roon myself. I sold the Aurender and am using a Mac mini for the moment with a lifetime Roon subscription. Both your options are good. With Roon I find my listening sessions are longer , fantastic way to find new music.

I like the Roon app a lot but when I used it with either windows or mac in my system the Aurender sounded better than a pc. The conductor app can't be compared to Roon for user experience for sure but to me the listening experience is better with Aurender than pc even with Roon. Just my 2c and others will certainly feel differently.

George

Thanks for the welcome back!

WiFi is no go. At home my internet speed is 8mbps:grumpy:

I think Roon would be nice in the future but i don’t necessarily need it right away. To be honest as long as the GUI is good and it works I’m happy!

You make some good points. That’s partly why i like the Lumin U1 because it can use Roon and can output into my CH dac. Seems the cheapest and easiest way to go?

As an Aurender user, would you consider an all in one model with DACs? I notice you use an Esoteric Dac for your Aurender?

I personally would not currently consider an all in one unit as I’ve never heard one that can even compare to the top dacs in the market be it Esoteric, DCS,MSB or others. To be clear I’m talking about these guys top units as well. In the future that could always change.

George

I have owned the Aurender N100, N10, and now the Lumin U1. I rate the Lumin highest in sound quality in my system and prefer it over the Aurenders I tried.

The Linn Klimax Katalyst competes.

I didn’t think so when I took a listen. Just my opinion though. :-)

I recently moved from an Aurender N100 to an Esoteric N-03T and the difference was startling. Different price points but obviously the N10 is also around this level price wise, but I preferred the Esoteric...

I’ll upgrade from my N100 also at some point but I still mostly spin discs so upgrading the N100 isn’t the highest priority right now.

George

+1 here also; neither did the owner, he already replaced his, a local customer.

The Aurender n100 has dac built in? I can see how a world class Dac would beat a cheaper all in one solution but how would a A30 compare to an esoteric network player or K-01Xs? Does the Esoteric have its own app or do you have to use the Roon app?

No DAC in the N100 or N-03T. Both just streamer devices although the N-03T has the ability to connect to an external clock which was part of the appeal for me. The N100 does have the advantage of onboard storage whereas the N-03T requires connection to external storage.

Sorry I can’t comment on the A30 as I have no experience with it. Esoteric has their own Soundstream App for playback and are in the process of obtaining Roon certification for the N-03T. I believe the N-01 and N-05 are already Roon certified...

I’m using WiFi by means of my own router to avoid the use of Ethernet cables. Its application is not dependent on internet speed. It basically comes down to setting up your own wireless network. If the router is connected to the internet, software like Roon can fetch metadata, but the music resides e.g. on a NAS in your network.

Bang for the Buck - Aurender or Lumin
 

Opinions vary, of course. I haven’t heard in comparison to Esoteric, only a dcs stack. It wasn’t quite up to the dcs stack, but not far off either, and better than any other DAC the dealer had on hand.

Anyone here that has testet the lumin d2 as a dac? If how does it perform?

Do you mean as a standalone DAC? The D2 is just a streamer with no audio inputs.

Well i installed roon and it is excellent. I had no idea it could just connect to my Sooloos so that is something great. Might delay my Lumin purchase. Just waiting for the Sooloos to die....

You can always help it along... :D

https://cdn3.movieweb.com/i/article/...vis-Robert.jpg